American neo-Nazi convicted of murder after the Charlottesville violence

An American neo-Nazi was convicted of murder on Friday by a court in Charlottesville, Eastern United States, 16 months after killing an anti-fascist demonstrator who was protesting a far-right rally in the city, the US media report.

James Fields, 21, drove his car into a group of protesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring several people in the town of Virginia in August 2017 before escaping.

The sentence must be announced later.

The trial, started last week, was to determine if the defendant acted "out of fear or malice", in the words of Judge Richard Moore.

The lawyers of James Fields supported self-defense and discussed his mental health at the time of the events.

According to one of his lawyers, the young man told the police that he "feared for his safety and was scared to death".

The accusation instead claimed that the young man had acted premeditated, and that a lot of evidence – photos and videos – have shown.

The Charlottesville rally was organized by white nationalists to protest against the announced debacle of a statue by southern general Robert Lee. The spotlight had shone on the new generation of the far-right United States that emerged from the start of President Donald Trump's term, whose incendiary rhetoric is regularly denounced as the hatred and divisions that fuel it.